Angel Glass had dreams about his mother almost every night.
"My little Angel..."
He always heard her singing first. Then he could open his eyes and see her face. His mother had the most beautiful eyes in the world...they were a heavenly blue color that always made him feel loved. If grace itself had a color, that's what her eyes would be.
"My perfect little Angel..."
Her wings hugged him in the kind of comforting embrace every child should feel from their mother. Large magnificent white wings wrapped around Angel like a soft blanket. Feelings of love and warmth washed over him...
Then his mother's voice slowly became quieter...and quieter...while she faded away.
Angel's eyes opened as he awoke in his bed, being greeted with an almost dilapidated ceiling instead of his mother's loving gaze.
He instantly knew he was back in his sad reality, as he did with every morning.
Angel sits up in his bed and rubs his eyes to get himself ready to start his morning routine. Angel's room was nothing special, frankly, it was far below the standard any young colt should be living in. The building was made almost completely of wood, which was merely another sign of its age. The wood was old, rotten, and covered in cobwebs in most places. There was no carpet or rug in Angel's room, he had no decorations whatsoever to help lighten the dreary atmosphere. Nothing but a simple calendar nailed to the wall next to the door, and it didn't even have any color.
Angel moves the dusty blankets off of himself before sliding out of bed and standing up, the ancient floorboards creaking even underneath his childish weight. His mouth opens in a quiet yawn then calmly walks around his bed towards the only other door in the room besides the exit. He gingerly pushes the door open, making yet another creaking noise as it swings inward. This door simply revealed a minimal looking bathroom that could maybe match a janitor's closet in size. No bathtub or shower was present, only a mirror, a toilet, and a small sink which stood alone underneath the mirror. The mirror showed its age by the many cracks in its corners and the unclean blurriness that could be seen in the reflection. Angel reaches over the sink and turns on the cold water. The faucet wobbled as water steadily spilled out of it. Using his white hoof, Angel splashes water onto his face a few times. He knew the tap water wasn't clean, but he didn't have any better options.
Angel slowly looks up to see his reflection in the mirror. The pure white color of his body contrasted the dark and dreary atmosphere of his room, he looked clean and bright like sunlight. His mane and tail were a smooth golden color and his eyes were like heavenly golden circles of beauty that shined when even the slightest ray of light passed over them. In the mirror's reflection, his cutie mark was only partially visible, but it was a golden orb that was broken with a gold liquid spilling out of it. He was an earth pony so he had no horn or wings, but even so, he was a bit thin compared to the average earth pony.
Angel seems to think to himself for a moment before stepping out of the bathroom. He looks around his room briefly before approaching his calendar on the wall. Angel places a hoof on the calendar and a gulp can be heard from him. The calendar read the date, March 23, 1985. "Today's the day...it's her birthday.." He says quietly to himself.
Angel hardly blinked another time before a knock was heard at his door. Angel moved to the door of his room and attempted to open it slowly, but the pony on the other side had a different idea.
With a boing the door sprung open and an excited pegasus filly burst into the room. "SURPRISE!!!" She shouted. The girl's color scheme was not very unlike Angel's despite them not being related. Her body was bright white and her mane and tail were a cotton candy yellow color. Her eyes were a nice purple color which accented her body while also matching the hue of her triple balloon cutie mark.
Angel looked startled by his friend's entrance but he manages to recover quickly. "S-surprise! I was just going to come and see you. Happy birthday." He smiles but it looks strangely nervous as if he's hiding something.
Surprise glomps Angel in a hug which probably could have squeezed the life out of a smaller animal like a rabbit. "Thank you thank you thank you! It's so sweet that you remembered! You just made my day a kabillion times better!" Surprise grins at him after releasing the hug.
Angel gets a shy smile on his face while he does his best to hide a blush. "I...I want today to be special for you."
Oh it will be very special indeed...for both of you. A mysterious voice suddenly speaks inside of Angel's mind, only audible to him as if they were his own thoughts. But this voice was completely foreign to him, it was deep and ominous and it sent a chill down his spine. Angel does very well at hiding the fact that he heard a voice so he wouldn't worry Surprise on such a special day for her. Just then, everything that Angel can see changes appearance in an instant as if a ghostly filter was just placed over his eyes. The environment looks faded and foggy, but directly in front of him, Angel can see Surprise, except she looks very different. Angel sees Surprise as a blue apparition and within her transparent body, where her heart should be there is instead an hourglass...and the sand in the hourglass shows that the time is almost up.
Why...why are you showing me this?... Angel thinks to himself in an effort to reply to the voice in his head. Who are you?
We will meet face to face soon enough. Follow your path, Angel... The mysterious voice says before fading away.
Surprise notices Angel's sudden silence and prods him out of it with a question. "Are we still gonna get outta here Angel? You promised, remember?..." She asks in a hopeful tone, giving him the cutest puppy eyes she could muster.
Angel blinks out of his silence upon seeing Surprise's adorable face pleading with him. "Of course we are Surprise." He manages a small reassuring smile. "I would never forget anything I promised you."
Surprise gets her own hint of a blush at that, staring back at Angel with a happy smile. "Let's get going then," Angel says with a little burst of confidence. Both of them exit the room, closing the door behind them then proceeding down a hallway. The hall was just as old and dusty as Angel's room, and again lacking any kind of decoration. The hall itself contained six doors total, including Angel's door. None of the rooms were labeled.
The two friends began to walk as quietly as they could on the creaky floors as they approached a staircase. Angel went down the stairs first, doing his best to sneak while Surprise followed behind. The ground floor of the building was a single large room which contained a front entrance of double doors, a greeting desk, a kitchen, and a leisure area with two worn down couches that were in poor condition. Sitting at the desk was an older looking earth pony mare, complete with glasses and a generous belly. She was asleep in her chair and also snoring like a bear. Near her, resting on the desk, was a wooden paddle easily within her reach. The paddle looked almost older than the mare sitting with it, and clearly had it been used many many times.
Angel looks back towards Surprise, seeing a face of worry and fear wash over her, he briefly places a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her and they exchange nods at each other. They continue sneaking forward, stopping only once when the old mare moved a hoof to rub her nose while she slept. When they escaped the building, they started to run away as soon as it was safe. Angel looked back at it one last time as he and Surprise kept running. An old broken sign above the entrance of the building read, Fillydelphia Orphanage.
"Come on I know the perfect place for us to go!" Surprise bounces beside Angel, exuberantly fluttering her wings with each bounce. She had been as happy as can be ever since they got out of the orphanage for good. Clearly leaving that place was a huge relief for her.
"Wait I want to take you somewhere first. I've been saving a really special birthday gift for you Surprise." Angel smiles then gently grabs her left forehoof.
Surprise stares into Angel's golden eyes for a second before nodding excitedly. "That sounds perfect! Hehe."
Angel and Surprise quickly trot together, further and further away from the orphanage; through the alleys and streets of Fillydelphia. While they continue moving along, Surprise spots a public park in the distance that looked quite fun. She could see plenty of trees and birds and even a playground that had a big slide in it.
"Hey, there's a park over there!" She exclaims while pointing with her free hoof, "Maybe we could play in it later?" Surprise turns her head to look at Angel expectantly.
Angel felt a little sick on the inside when he heard that question because he, unfortunately, was aware that there may not be time later for him to go to the park with Surprise. Yet he once again brought a smile to his face, reminding himself how important it was to keep Surprise happy during however much time she had left. "For sure. That sounds really great." Angel answers his friend positively, regardless of the fear he felt gradually growing in his gut.
As they continue into the city, the two of them pass by many shops, some were closed or abandoned, others looked very new. One of the shops they passed appeared to be a newer shop with a sign which read, Crystal Clear: Glassware and Sculptures. The sign was the only piece of color on the building, the wood was painted a faint blue color with darker ocean-like blue lettering over it. The shop had brick walls, and the only windows were on the front side. One very large window to the right of the door, one small window on the front door itself, and a window above the shop's sign which was much further up than the main store area, meaning the building must have been two stories.
This one seemed to catch Surprise's attention since she quickly slipped away from Angel then bounced over to the shop to get a closer look. Angel noticed her getting distracted and stopped walking to follow her over to the shop's window.
"Did you see something Surprise?" Angel asks while he approaches the large window of the glass shop, which Surprise was already pressing her face against just to see what the closed store held inside.
The interior of the glassware shop was somewhat of a mix between a jewelry store and an antique shop. There was an almost creepily perfect symmetry to the place as well, as it had two long display cases side by side to the left and right sides of the shop with aisles of walk space between each case. From the window, it was difficult for the children to see what entirely was kept inside the cases but Surprise noticed what looked like several small mirrors with handles. Along the left and right walls of the shop were large glass sculptures of different sizes and shapes, but on each wall, the sculptures were ordered from smallest to largest by their height. In each corner of the shop, there were large mirrors standing back to back in lines, each mirror with a different frame. Far in the back of the store, a normal cash register could be seen, then behind that was a small set of stairs that went upwards.
"Oooooh." Surprise cooed in amazement at seeing so many glass objects in one place. The large mirrors especially drew her in since she could almost see her reflection in a couple of them, which made her giggle. "Do you think that old mirror game would work on these, Angel?" She asks in a coy voice with a matching smile. "Just gotta say her name three times. Let's try it!" Surprise inhales a deep breath for dramatic effect then she is quickly pulled away from the window as Angel grabs her hoof and gets them back on track to his planned destination.
"Sorry Surprise but I really really wanna show you the gift I have for you! We're so close and it's just a few more stores away." Angel says in an urgent voice, for the first time letting a bit of his fear slip out. That mirror game never seemed fun to him, not to mention he was not willing to risk the scary stories about it being true considering what he knew about Surprise's dangerously fast approaching fate. He refused to let his friend get hurt by any creepy legends on his watch.
"Aw! Okay, your gift will be more fun anyway!" Surprise goes along with Angel's sudden intervention and silently notices his genuine concern about it. She knew scary stories always spooked Angel, but usually not this much. For a brief second, she wondered if something was going on with him, but she figured it was just him being nervous about giving her a nice gift.
About a block down the road, they reach an old bakery shop that was clearly covered in bright colors at one time, but those colors had now faded into an almost sad looking palette. Stripes of red and pink trimmed around the bakery's brick wall outside and the entrance, which was once a welcoming joyful yellow door but was now an unappetizing yellow similar to urine, but Angel's gift was not inside the bakery but instead in a much more clever location.
The young orphans duck into an alleyway near the bakery and Angel slows down their trotting to a walk. "It's close." He says. "I hid it in here so nopony would find it. Not even raccoons." Angel releases Surprise's hoof then walks over to the side of an abandoned building in the alley. One of the bricks were loose and he easily removes the brick to reveal a small cubby hole in the wall. Angel reaches his hoof into the hole then slowly pulls out a box that looks like a small treasure chest.
Surprise's eyes widen. "Wow...that's a great hiding spot." She smiles brightly. "It must be a super duper special gift!"
Holding his own joy and anticipation of this moment, Angel slowly opens the gift chest to reveal a large slice of something that was wrapped up delicately in paper, by the smell it was some kind of treat. "You can't have a birthday without any cake." He smiles happily.
Surprise gasps and her eyes widen like a child who just walked into a candy store for the first time. "No way!" She eagerly picks up the slice of cake and proceeds to carefully unwrap it. "Oh my gosh...Angel...I...I've never had a birthday cake!" Her eyes start to look a little shaky.
Angel quickly puts down the storage chest then looks at his friend and softly uses a hoof to caress Surprise's cheek. "No, no tears today. it's your birthday...and nopony should cry on their birthday." He smiles warmly before he slowly leans closer then gently kisses Surprise's cheek.
Surprise stares into Angel's eyes with joy. "You make me so so happy Angel. You're the best pony I've ever met." She looks down at the gift he gave her then back at him. "You have to share this with me, here." Surprise gives the cake to Angel for him to hold it, and he accepts it without thinking.
"But I got it for you Surprise I-" Angel is suddenly lifted off the ground when Surprise grabs him around the body then flies upwards. "Oh!" He exclaims as he holds onto the cake being extra careful not to drop it.
"My birthday spot is gonna be perfect for my first piece of cake! And I get to be there with my most favorite friend in the world! Best birthday ever!!" Surprise grins as she flies over the city with Angel in her grasp.
Angel glances up at Surprise, only to see the frightening ghost vision return again, allowing him to see Surprise's internal hourglass getting closer and closer to its final moments. "...That sounds amazing Surprise." He does his best to keep a smile on his face despite the inevitable fate he can see coming.
After a few minutes of flying, Surprise set Angel down onto the roof of an old warehouse before she gleefully landed next to him and they sat together. There was a slight creaking noise on the metal sheet roof where they sat, but they paid no mind to it as the building was likely as old as everything else in this part of the city, and they were also distracted by the view. The roof had a beautiful view of the sun being raised into the sky, which made the two young ponies' shadows stretch across the top of the warehouse where they were sitting.
Angel smiles at Surprise then unwraps the piece of cake and gently gives it to her. Surprise reaches a hoof into her own mane and spontaneously pulls out two plastic forks. "Let's share it." She smiles brightly at Angel, who can't help but accept the offer after seeing Surprise's wonderful smile.
And so they ate the single slice of birthday cake, it may not have been much in literal size, but it was clear that to them it filled much more than their stomachs...it filled their hearts too. After finishing the cake, they set the forks and crumbs aside while the two of them sat and watched the sunrise, Surprise leans her head on his shoulder for a long couple of minutes.
"Angel, this is the best day ever." Surprise says in a sweet voice.
Angel's heart was lifted so much at hearing those words. He had one goal for the entire day and it was to make Surprise as happy as possible. It may have been encouraged by what he knew was going to happen...by what that mysterious voice kept showing him. But even if he was influenced somehow, Angel knew this was the best thing he could do. And he still had hope...maybe it wasn't too late to save her...maybe there was a way. Angel slowly wraps a hoof around Surprise's body, feeling the softness of her wings as he gently pulled her closer, hugging her softly to his side. He turned his head to smile at her, but that's when his heart sank and his smile turned into a look of fear.
Just for a moment, he could see Surprise as an apparition again...and her hourglass was at a critical point. She had less than a minute before it ran out, maybe even seconds.
Angel blinks quickly until he could see Surprise normally again, he didn't know what to do. "S-surprise." Angel scoots away just a little and grabs her hoof, looking into her eyes with emotion.
Surprise stares back at him and looks confused. "Are you okay Angel?" She can see the expression on his face, and she was immediately worried. Everything was fine, so why did he look so afraid?
"Just listen..." Angel says in a quieter voice as he leans in to talk to her in a serious but emotional voice. "...I love you. No matter what happens I want you to know that ok? Surprise you have been the best friend I've ever had, and you are the only reason I had hope for anything in my life. You made me happy and you were always there for me when I needed a friend." Angel starts to tear up and he hugs Surprise tightly. " I love you so much Surprise. Always remember that..." He rested his muzzle on her shoulder as he cried.
Surprise's eyes couldn't have been any wider. That was so sudden...why was he telling her this now? Why was he crying? She could feel his body shaking as he hugged her so tightly. "Angel it's okay. I...I lo-"
CRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEAKK
Just then, the place on the roof where they were sitting made a harsh creaking noise. it shook. and before either of them could completely release the hug...the roof caved in. The roof was only a thin layer of metal and it was so old and withered that it couldn't bear the weight of the children for any longer.
Angel and Surprise fell like rocks into the darkness of the warehouse. The only sounds they heard were each other's screams and debris falling with them from the roof. It was about a forty-foot drop straight down into the building. Surprise tried to flap her wings to escape the fall but her left wing was clipped by a falling pipe, the impact made a sickening crack noise. A split second later, both of them hit the floor.
Angel somehow crashed into a metal sheet seconds before he impacted with a pile of junk that rose up from the ground of the warehouse. He ungracefully slid down the junk and rolled onto the floor roughly. It hurt, but he managed to stand. Adrenaline began to take over his body in the moment of tension. He needed to find Surprise.
There was a faint cough from the center of the debris of the cave-in, the light from the hole in the roof above shined on it like a spotlight...and just slightly poking out of the rubble, was a little broken white wing.
Surprise did not move from under the rubble, not the slightest bit. The damage done to her was clearly critical because she seemed absolutely dazed by the fall. Angel's heart was crumbling into pieces. He ran over to Surprise as fast as he could, pulling the debris and rubble off of his friend. Surprise's body was dirtied and bruised, the expression on her face was of pain but it was clear she was already feeling weak from her injuries. The worst of the trauma was a jagged piece of pipe that the light-spirited pegasus had, unfortunately, landed on which was piercing through the right side of her back without an exit wound.
"A-angel...." Surprise manages to speak quietly while her eyes water from the excruciating pain.
"Surprise I-I'm sorry!.... I'm so so sorry..." Angel's tears roll down his muzzle as he helplessly looks down at his friend suffering, not knowing how to help or what to do. His body shuddered with sadness and anguish and fear.
"..It...It really hurts...." Surprise attempts to lift herself off of the broken pipe but she makes a yelp of pain and doesn't get very far as she discovers she's unable to move. She cries as the sharpness in her back causes the worst pain she's ever experienced.
Why...why did this happen?... Why did it have to be her??... Angel internally demands from the mysterious voice while on the outside he is sobbing. Angel turns his head and looks around hopelessly for some way, anyway he can help his friend. "Surprise maybe I...I can find help... I can save you I can...I...I..."
No. The mysterious voice interrupts inside of Angel's head.
Angel's panicking stops and all he can do is stare down at Surprise, watching with tears in his eyes as she gets visibly weaker and weaker and her pain becomes worse and worse.
This is natural Angel...This is how it must happen. You can feel it can't you?... The mysterious voice goes on.
Angel's body begins to shake as he stares at Surprise. All of his heart wants to help her, to save her...to go back on that roof with her when they were happy. But this feeling was growing inside of him. The longer he stared into Surprise's eyes the stronger the feeling was. it was like he could see through her body, deeper into her head, and then...he blinked. For the first time, he himself had activated the strange vision he was using before. Angel could see Surprise's soul and her empty hourglass. He knew Surprise didn't want to die...he didn't want her to either...but he could see her soul...and after the hourglass ran out, it wants to leave. Angel could feel Surprise's soul and how it was trapped...but the more her body faded towards death, the closer her soul was to going where it needed to go. He hated the idea completely, but the voice was right. it was natural. Angel didn't even know how he understood this but...somehow he could see it.
Just then, Angel blinks again, returning his vision to normal. He saw Surprise's face again and she was staring up at him weakly, barely keeping her eyes open. Even knowing what the voice had explained didn't change that the best friend he ever had...the love of his life...was dying in front of him. His sadness swelled in him like a volcano. it took all of his strength to keep himself from bursting into a horrible wheezing and ugly crying fit. His eyes shook while he stared into the eyes of his friend, watching her life fade away.
Surprise looked just as sad as Angel, with tiny streams of tears flowing from her eyes and her lip quivering from the intense pain. There was a moment in her mind where she believed she would survive this...but when the moment of hope disappeared, Surprise knew it was her last chance to say something. The only thing that came to mind was what she wanted to say before this tragedy happened. The words that she knew she needed to finish...because they meant the most to her.
"A-angel...I...I love you..." Surprise uses what little strength she has left to speak before the light fades from her eyes, and her body slowly stops moving...
"Surprise...." He doesn't want to believe she's gone. "Surprise!!" He cries out as he can't hold in his emotion anymore, lowering his head over her body, Angel cries, and cries, letting out every bit of despair and anguish he was feeling. Almost thirty minutes passed before he stopped. Angel looked broken.
There was a supernatural noise from across the room, and Angel slowly looks up.
Out of the darkness, a stallion in a black cloak approaches. His legs were nothing but bone, literally visible skeleton legs, yet his muzzle was poking out of the hood of his dark cloak, and it appeared normal. The stallion's face was colored pitch black. When he speaks Angel recognizes the voice immediately, it was the voice who had been speaking in his head. "You've passed my test, Angel... I knew I was right when I saw the potential in you." The stallion looks down at Angel with an unsettling smirk. "Who knew, even with that bloodline of yours that you'd turn out to be my perfect apprentice..."
Angel stares up at the stallion with hatred but he was too drained for it to become rage yet. "I am not going with you... I need to bury my friend...I...I can't just leave her here." Angel stands up on shaky legs. "A-and if I ever see you again...I'll kill you. I don't care if you think I'm special... I don't even know who you are, or why you did this...and...and..." Angel looks down as his anger begins to build before looking at the stallion again and vocally erupting with a shout. "SURPRISE DIDN'T DESERVE THAT!!! Not any of it!!" Angel yells through more tears. "You...you should have just killed me.....she was a good pony...she was.." Angel falls back onto his haunches, sitting down as he sobs again.
The stallion shakes his head stoically. "Emotion... I should have expected this from one so young." He gives Angel an apathetic stare as the colt cries on the floor. "You are clearly not ready...fine... I will allow you time to recover." The stallion turns and begins to disappear into the shadows. "This will be the one and only act of magnanimity you will receive from me..." His voice fades with his body as he disappears into the dark.
Angel holds his face in his hooves while he sobs for a minute. "D-don't come back..." He says as if the stallion could still hear him but he knew he was gone.
After a much-needed pause to grieve, Angel eventually stands up again and wipes the remaining tears from his eyes. Now he needed a way to get Surprise to a place where he could bury her. But he couldn't just carry his dead friend through the city...that wouldn't end well. So he hoped he could come up with a better plan than that...
Angel scoots closer to Surprise and gently kisses her head before standing and quickly trotting out of the warehouse through a back door. Angel searches through the alley near the warehouse and finds a little old toy wagon that was left there. He lets out a sigh before nodding then creating a pile of trash bags on the wagon. Angel pushes the wagon into the warehouse and stops near Surprise's body. Angel looks at Surprise and the sadness almost swells up in him again, but he manages to fight the tears away. Angel tries to block out the sickening sound as he lifts up Surprise's body, causing the broken pipe that was stabbed into her to slide out of the fatal wound. Angel felt that Surprise was already cold...which really unsettled him. Everything about her was warm...her smile...her hugs...her heart. Now she's...c-cold... He thought to himself. Standing on shaky legs, Angel places Surprise onto the wagon then proceeds to hide her body under the trash bags, making the wagon appear to have nothing but trash on it. He sighs before starting to pull the wagon away from the scene of the accident.
Angel goes through alleys and side roads, avoiding public areas and streetwalkers with his wagon that could easily get him in horrible trouble if anypony found the secret it was hiding. Angel travels out of the city and into a nearby forested area. He knew he couldn't just dig a new grave in the cemetery, that would be risky and would get too much attention. Surprise deserved something better anyway...
He made sure he was very deep in the forest and away from any hiking trails. These forests weren't dangerous, but that meant he'd need to be extra careful so a random pony couldn't just stumble upon Surprise. So he found the perfect spot for her. Not too much sunlight, but not too dark either. Plenty of trees around and the grass looked peaceful. Angel stopped his wagon then started to dig a hole for a grave. He used his hooves at first, but only got a third of the way down before he tried something else. Angel breaks off the handle of the wagon and uses it like a shovel for the rest of the grave.
When the hole was finally dug, it took Angel another long portion of time to lay Surprise into the grave, because he refused to just drop her into the ground. Angel tenderly lays her down then makes sure she's laying so she still looks...pretty. He climbs out of the grave then uses the actual wagon to help push the dirt into the hole until it was covered completely. Angel knew the dirt was going to make the grave completely obvious so he put the last of his strength to work and managed to topple over a large boulder to cover the spot. He was exhausted, but he knew it was all for Surprise. That's what kept him going.
To finish the burial, Angel uses a sharp rock to carve a letter S into the boulder over Surprise's grave. He even scatters some beautiful flower petals over everything. The last thing Angel does is clean up the wagon by kicking it into a flowing river a bit deeper into the forest. After getting rid of that evidence he returns to Surprise's grave and sits near the boulder, leaning his face near the S he carved.
"I miss you so much..." Angel whispers quietly.
While Angel is near Surprise's grave, the dark skeleton stallion from before returns and silently approaches from around the large boulder. Angel notices the stallion and attempts to flee but it was too late, and he is caught by the stallion's boney hoof. The stallion grips Angel's tail, yanking the young colt closer to him them grabbing the boy by the throat. The stallion walks with Angel in his grasp into the shadow of the boulder, seconds after they step into the darkness, they both begin to sink into the shadow like it's quicksand. The stallion holds his grip tightly on Angel's small throat as they slowly disappear. Angel keeps futilely struggling and squirming as much as he can before he completely sinks into the darkness.
Then everything goes black.
Author's Note
Thank you to everyone who reads this! For anyone who read the original first chapter, (which no longer exists) I plan on completely rewriting that story for that particular character because I feel like my execution of that was very sloppy compared to what I'm doing now. If you really enjoyed that original chapter, don't worry I won't completely rework it, just making it more detailed. On that note, for those of you who are following me or following this story (thank you so much by the way), I am doing my best to keep these stories coming.
